And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it. Our dear Lord Jesus weeps at unbelief. He weeps at sin and death. Not His own death. Not at what is soon to come, when He will be hoisted upon the gruesome scaffold and die a most horrific death. He doesn’t weep for Himself. He weeps for Jerusalem. He weeps for you.

For this is the City on a Hill. The Light shining in the darkness. This is the City of Peace at whose center lies the dwelling place of the God of Peace. There, inside the glorious Temple, behind the beautifully embellished curtain, residing atop the awe-inspiring Ark of the Covenant, was the Cavod YHWH, the Glory of the Lord. The all-consuming smoke and fire of the Divine Presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

This is the Fire that consumed Nadab and Abihu when they recklessly brought unauthorized fire and incense into the Holy Place (Leviticus 10). This is the Fire that fell from heaven to utterly devastate Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). The Fire that came down and consumed not only the entire bull, but also the altar, its stones, and licked up the water of the sacrifice of Elijah (1 Kings 18). This is raw, unmediated power of the Glory of the Lord. It makes one think twice before saying, “I just want to go to God on my own.”

But in the Temple this all-consuming Fire is kept at bay through the Word of the Lord, by His grace and mercy, and by the blood of the sacrificial animals that mediates between the holy Law of God and His chosen people. As you prayed in the collect, “O God, You declare You almighty power above all in showing mercy and pity.”

But as it was in the days of Jeremiah, so too now. Jesus comes as the fulfillment of the Prophets, as the culmination of the Temple and its Sacrifices, with mercy for all, but they would not receive Him. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often wold I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Mt 23:37).

It is a warning, beloved. A portend and a prophecy. The Lord’s fierce wrath and righteous anger will not wait forever. He does not overlook sin indefinitely. His patience waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was being prepared, but eventually the Flood came and destroyed the whole world. He sent His prophets to Jerusalem time and again, to His people, calling them to repentance, but eventually He used the Babylonian army to lay siege to the Holy City and utterly decimate the Temple in 587 BC. It was rebuilt, but it happened again. Forty years after Jesus’ prophecy the day came upon them.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, employed by the Roman state, describes the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 in horrific detail: “The homes were filled with women and children thus destroyed, the alleys with corpses of old men. Young men and boys, swelling with hunger, haunted the marketplace like ghosts and fell dead in their tracks. The sick could not bury their relatives and many fell dead while burying others. There was no weeping or wailing as hunger conquered emotion” (Jewish War 5.512-519).

He goes on in sad detail about terrible acts of savagery in fighting for food and a demonic story of infanticide and cannibalism too grotesque to relate. He finishes though, by saying, “I think that if the Romans had delayed their attack on these wicked scoundrels, the earth would have opened and swallowed the city, or a flood would have overwhelmed it or lightening destroyed it, like Sodom. For it produced a far more godless generation than those who suffered there” (Jewish War 5.566).

It is chilling to hear and terrifying to consider the devastating power of God’s fierce anger against the unbelief and rejection by His people. And they will leave not one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation. No wonder Jesus weeps!

But He doesn’t stop there. As it was for the weeping widow at Nain or His own tears at the tomb of His dear friend Lazarus, Jesus, moved with compassion and love, doesn’t just cry about it. He acts. He acts in righteous anger and divine mercy. He acts on your behalf, not only warning you, calling you to repentance, but also preparing a place for you, making a way.

He entered the Temple and began to drive our those who sold. The true Temple made without hands comes and exorcises the wicked money changers, restoring its rightful purpose of being a house of prayer for men like the tax collector. He comes and cleanses it of thieves in order to make room for the One who will be crucified with thieves. He comes and casts out the money changers for your redemption is purchased not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death. These are the things which make for peace. And this is why He has come.

He comes with the mercy of God, having pity upon the people for what their sin and ignorance have done to them. He comes to His own, beloved people; to those who dwell in the shadow of the Temple and the smell of its sacrifices. To those beat down by the Law and the terror of their own conscience. He comes to folks like us. This is His visitation.

And it is either received now in His mercy and love, with full and free forgiveness for all of your sins, or it is endured on the Last Day under the terror and fear of His raw divine power.

Repentance is needed, beloved. Repentance, but not despair. Weep for yourselves. Mourn and lament your wretched sins. But do not weep for your future or fear the coming visitation of the Lord. For Christ Jesus has fulfilled those blood sacrifices that once stood between God and His Law. He is the once-for-all Sacrifice whose blood covers over the accusations of the Law and is sprinkled upon you in Holy Baptism to cover you with His righteousness.

It is by this self-same Baptism that you, in your flesh, are put to death in Christ, and raised again with Him by the Spirit and are joined to the Temple of His Body as a living member. This Temple, His Body, was destroyed, but raised once more, never to die again. In His Word He bestows upon you this peace. Peace not as the world can give. Peace which surpasses all human understanding. The Peace of the Lord that bespeaks you righteous!

Do you see? You who have received His first visitation and coming to His Temple with joy and gladness, who rejoice now in His present visitation in His Word and Supper, shall likewise rejoice in His final visitation when He comes to judge the living and the dead.

What I mean is this: His first visitation is His Incarnation and Birth. He comes to His Temple as an infant, only 40 days old, as the glory of His people Israel, as the Peace which allows Simeon to depart in peace. By His grace you have received Him; believed in His Name by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word.

You, like the people in the Temple, hang on this life-giving, death defying Word. You hold it sacred, unafraid of the final judgment, for you have the promise of this Word that you who share in the death of Christ by faith also shall share in His resurrection. You have the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. Therefore the final visitation of Christ shall not terrify you; but you receive it with joy for it is your redemption out of this vail of tears and away from the devastation that will be worse than Jerusalem.

For even now, dear ones, Christ Jesus comes to you, His sacramental visitation, as your Shepherd and Bishop, to feed you on His Body and Blood, the Sacrifice of the True Temple, and the precious antidote to the destruction of the Last Day. He who is the True Temple comes to you, His new Jerusalem, His chosen people, in mercy and compassion, and makes your body His Temple by His Holy Spirit in His Supper. For we do not deny the spiritual eating! And as St Paul writes, To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

To you is given the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, together with His Spirit, for the common good of all, for the building up of the household of God, as it is written, As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pt 2:4-5).

Or as you just sang in the penultimate verse: Through toil and tribulationAnd tumult of her warShe waits the consummation Of peace forevermoreTill with the vision gloriousHer longing eyes are blest,And the great Church victorious Shall be the Church at rest. (LSB 644:4).

Come now to Christ who comes to you. Receive the things that make for and have made peace between you and the Father. Receive the already, but not yet rest of your Lord Jesus Christ who has not only wept for you, but who has acted for you, on your behalf, and has secured your future and hope. He draws near to you, to raise you up from the ground, you and your children, to join you to Himself in mystical union with His Father and the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory now and forever. Amen.

Dear people loved by God, today you have set before you the difficult parable of the Unjust Steward; of the commendation of an unrighteous servant who uses another man’s wealth to secure his own position. The easiest way to handle this text would be to just skip it; to focus on the last three verses where Jesus says you cannot serve God and money and preach a harsh sermon against possessions and stuff; against owning nice things or living in big houses; and really hitting you with the Law to try to get you to open up your wallets. Or, in modern terms, text a larger gift.

Such an approach would not only be an insult to your piety, turning the Gospel into Law and using it as a club to extort charity; but such an approach would also be unfaithful to the text and disingenuous to the reality that Scripture can be difficult to understand. Remember what St Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch? Do you understand what you are reading?And the eunuch said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31). How shall they hear, St Paul asks rhetorically, unless they have a preacher (Rom 10:14).

This is not meant to justify my return, for you have been in the very faithful pastoral care and preaching of Pastor Irmer in my absence. Rather, the inclusion of this difficult parable in the lectionary is evidence enough that our Lord Jesus, Scripture as a whole, and the Church do not hide the thorny, vexing parts of God’s Word, but deal directly with them in the selfsame thorny difficulties in which you live. Hardly a parable is spoken by Jesus in which He does not also offer its interpretation. So too here. He is the Preacher, always and foremost.

Your Lord and Master, the Faithful Steward of the mysteries of the Kingdom, proclaims to you, once debtors of the Rich Man, For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation that the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Take a lesson from the world’s playbook, says Jesus. The world is all wrong in its assumptions, but look at how dedicated the sons of this world are to their own goals - to their gods! - of having an easy life and heaping up stuff and money. Now, says Jesus, you be as dedicated toward the ends of the Kingdom. Consider this:

God blesses you with wealth, with all the stuff included in the First Article and the Fourth Petition, but not so that you can pretend it is your own. That’s what the children of this world do. You are children of light. You have been catechized better. You know that there is not a single thing we possess that is really our own. Every last one of us is managing the possessions that belong to Another, to the true Rich Man, to Jesus Christ. Everything we have is really His. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein (Ps 24:1).

And so we’re all managers. Receiving our daily bread with thanksgiving and using it to thank, praise, serve and obey Him. For like every manager, we’ll have to give an account one day of what we’ve done with what was entrusted to us.

And our Lord is very clear on how He wants us to use His possessions. He wants us to use them to support the preaching of His Gospel, of His good news of the full and free forgiveness of sins, proclaimed to the ends of the world. That other part of St Paul’s question: How are they to preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:15). Or St Philip’s mission to the Ethiopian, his preaching and catechesis which resulted in baptism.

And our Lord wants us to use what we’ve received from Him to alleviate the sufferings and hardships of those who are poorer and more disadvantaged than ourselves. As Jesus says earlier in Luke’s Gospel: Do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return (6:35) and Become merciful, just as your Father is merciful (6:36). He wants us to invest the stuff He gives us in bringing blessing, both temporal and eternal, to others.

To do so takes trust. Trust that all the stuff is His to begin with. Trust that He will continue to supply our daily needs and so we have no need to hoard against tomorrow. Tomorrow is entirely in His hands. And on one of those tomorrows we will be called from this life to stand before His throne. And every one of us will leave this world carrying out exactly as much as we brought in: nothing! Not one blessed thing! But when we stand before His throne, and He calls us to account for how we’ve handled what He entrusted to us in our time in this world, trust that we stand in His mercy and grace.

For how blessed we’ll be on that day, if as we stand before the throne, person after person stands up and says: “Lord Jesus, he helped me when no one else would. He gave me food and drink. Please welcome him now to Your feast!” And another, “Lord Jesus, I am here today sharing Your glory because she supported the preaching of the Gospel and so I came to hear of Your great sacrifice on the Cross and to know and believe that You had taken away the sins of the world, and mine too. She supported that preaching, welcome her home!” And another, “Lord Jesus, I remember feeling so down and alone, and that person noticed. He came and spent time with me. He listened and prayed with me. He shared Your Word with me and gave me new hope. Welcome him home!” And so on and so on.

On that day of accounting we won’t be surrounded by our stuff, but we will be surrounded by the people whom we have blessed or abandoned in their need. Which will it be? Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Don’t misunderstand me, though. Our Lord is not in any way implying that by our use of His good we can earn our way into the heavenly home. God forbid we teach or even think such a thing! He and He alone has won the right for us to share in His heavenly home and He bestows it upon us in His grace. For He who never mismanaged anything entrusted to Him by His Father, but offered His entire life as one great sacrifice to God, wiped out the debt of your sin and restored to all who believe and are baptized into Him the joy of being beloved children of the heavenly Father. He is faithful, merciful and blameless. He saves a humble people and His way is perfect. He is the One who by His suffering and death has opened the Kingdom of heaven to all believers.

But believing has its fruit. Believing is not just a matter of the heart, but breaks forth out of the heart and shows itself in the deeds of our lives.

And so these people who surround us on the Day of Judgment, when they point to the good we did them and urge Christ to welcome us into the heavenly home, they are not saying our deeds earned us what Christ freely gives. No, instead they are witnessing to the fact that we truly believed, we truly trusted that Christ would provide for our every need of body and soul. They are confessing that our lives were lighted up by the trust that freed our hands to be open in blessing instead o staying clasped in fear.

Our giving of self to others just witnessed to the fact that we had found in Christ a life that was more than we’ll ever need for ourselves. When you come to realize that you are not only a manager, but that the One for whom you are managing in your Brother, who shared His eternal wealth with you, that you are a co-heir with Him of all His Father’s riches, then you can be very generous in the handling of what’s been entrusted to you.

Today, dear people, at His Table, your Jesus goes on giving you more than you’ll ever need. He imparts His Body and Blood for forgiveness. Forgiveness for all the times you've doubted and distrusted and so kept to yourself what He wanted you to give to others. Forgiveness for turning mammon into an idol. Forgiveness for greed and selfishness and avarice. Not slashing debts in-half, but forgiving entirely, fully, and completely.

But He also imparts His Body and Blood to you to strengthen in you the faith that flows forth into love. So that you begin to share with others more and more, confident that in Him you have and you will always have more than you will need for time and eternity. This God - His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Historically you would have heard only the first two parables - the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. According to the LSB you would have received the final - the Lost Son or the Compassionate Father, which is, truly, the Evangelium in Evangelio, the Gospel within the Gospel. But as is our prerogative and freedom, we read them all. For they belong together, these three parables, as a triptych of sorts, exemplifying the work of the Blessed Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, though not in order.

In the Lost Sheep you have the beloved picture of the Good Shepherd who seeks out the one lost among a hundred. Is this not the common image of the Good Shepherd? Our window has it as most - sterile and serene, romantic and picturesque. But consider the true nature of the Good Shepherd, who not only seeks out the lost sheep, but dies for it. He lays down His life for the sheep.

Also here. Sending the ninety-nine home with the other shepherds, the Chief Shepherd walks alone, surrounded by danger on all sides, at risk and prey. Finding the animal hidden behind the bush He is not exasperated, but would crush the head of the serpent which is her terror, loving pulls her out, cleans her off, removing the thorns and thistles, and then lifts her to His shoulder, bearing the full weight of her disobedience and foolishness. He carries her home, not forcing her to walk, but doing the work Himself; eager to rejoice with the whole company over the lost sheep now found. Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep that was lost. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine (self) righteous persons who need no repentance.

This is one side panel of the triptych. The other is the Lost Coin. Some have seen in the woman the person of the Holy Spirit or perhaps the Divine Wisdom whom you heard last week in Proverbs. This is problematic for two reasons. Christ is Wisdom Incarnate and the work of the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from the person of Christ.

Alternatively, consider the explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles Creed. How does the Holy Spirit work? Through the Word and Sacraments, the Law and Gospel of the Word of the living God, read and preached. Where? In the Church, the Holy Bride of Christ, who is privileged to be the vehicle of His on-gong work following His Ascension.

She seeks out those who were bestowed to her in love, the treasures of her dowry, the beloved in the Lord for whom He shed His precious blood, by lighting the Lamp of Christ’s Word and lifting high its saving Light, seeking diligently to find the poor soul redeemed by the blood of Christ. In this Light we see Light. By the Light of the Word are we found; all darkness being dispelled. In it you are restored to fellowship with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, who are pleased to dwell with us on earth, basking in the glory of the crucified Christ who comes to us in His holy Word and Supper. Rejoice with the Church over the redemption of lost sinners.

But the center panel of these artful parables is the Prodigal. It is the pearl and crown of all the parables of Scripture; one containing the full circle of doctrine and the saving Gospel and a glorious picture of the compassionate heart of God our Father in Jesus Christ our Lord.

There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, “Give me the share of property that is coming to me.” Levitically he had a right to a small portion, half of that which shall be bestowed upon the first born. But his demand is despicable and betrays the heart of man: the desire to be independent of God, to live as if He did not matter, and I mattered most. “I shall take the ordering of my life into my own hands. I’m tired of your house and your rules. Old man, you’re dead to me.” A fine Father’s Day indeed!

He divided his property between them. Already you see the mercy of the father. The son’s heart had already left home, forcing him to stay would have been futile. God will not force Himself on anyone who does not want Him. Those who seek to exchange the truth of God for a lie, He will, in His wisdom, give them up to their desires, seeking to humble them, to eventually realize the sheer emptiness of their choices and the loss of true love at home in the house of their Father.

Gathering his portion, the younger son took a journey into a far country away from the watchful eye of his father, out from under his guidance and protection, putting his father not only far from him physically, but far from his conscience to indulge in his passions and lusts, to live recklessly, lawlessly.

This, beloved, is truly death. To wander away from the house and home of our Father, to journey into the far country of our own sins and delusions, thinking that indulgence is freedom. St Paul asks, What fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death (Rm 6:21). He who wanted to use the world as his servant to minister to his pleasures ends up becoming its slave. In misery he consumes the husks of his immorality, always hungry, but never satisfied. The food of beasts cannot appease the cravings of man. St Augustine has said, “You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in You” (Confessions, Book 1).

The stern discipline of divine mercy has its effect on this young man; and he came to himself and said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!” “He came to himself.” In remembering who is father is he began to realize anew who he truly was. When God speaks, saying, “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before Me,” you begin to realize your identity as well. To be found in God is to find oneself, too.

This is the beginning of repentance. I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer wroth to be called your son. But he lacks true faith. He designs to earn his way back; to merit his father’s good graces in time by living as a servant, a slave. But the mercy of his father, the compassion of the man whom he despised causes him to arise and go to him. He has confidence in his loving kindness and hopes that as he was once a son, he can now, by grace, be made a slave.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion. The significance of this word cannot be overlooked. Compassion. εσπλαγχνισθη. From splanchna. This onomatopoeic word pertaining to the disemboweling of the animal sacrifices. This deep, visceral, guttural mercy and extreme pity that moves one to action. In the Gospels this word is only used of Christ and God the Father. You heard it from Micah: Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot.

Such compassion moved him to act. The father ran and embraced his son and kissed him. He does not wait for the son to come all the way; does not make him grovel on the front porch. But runs to him, embracing and kissing him. Then, having received such evidences of the father’s love, the son confesses. And gone is the meritorious plea of service. He hears no mention of his sin, no discussion of his immorality and impudence, but only the loving kindness of a father who will not have an apprentice serving in fear, but welcomes home a son, embracing him in the arms of his love and restoring him to fellowship.

So too with your heavenly Father. Returning to Him in repentance and faith, He embraces a child, not a slave. He does not throw your sins in your face, but casts them into the depths of the sea. In deep compassion He clothes you in the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covers all your sins. He places on your hand the signet ring of the family, the pledge and seal of His Holy Spirit. And on your once dirty feet, which He stoops to wash, He fits with the Gospel of peace, that you may walk in His forgiveness and love as beloved children.

For indeed He has slaughtered the fattened calf to ensure your homecoming. That is, your true Father has fattened up His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, with your sin. He laid upon Him all your iniquity and led Him to be slaughtered in order that His blood might mark you as His own and assure you of His forgiveness and reconciliation. Though you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This is the extravagant grace and the prodigal mercy of your Father who art in heaven. He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. His anger is truly abated for it has been poured out on Christ Jesus, His Son, our Lord, who resisted the devouring jaws of the devil, destroying that imposter of a lion with the ferocity of His love as the true Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He has devoured death by His death and brought life and immortality to light. He has prepared a place for you in the Father’s house, truly free. Free to serve and worship Him without fear, holy and righteous in His sight all the days of your life. For you were once dead; wandering far from your Father’s home, dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, but now you are alive in Christ Jesus our Lord who loved you and gave Himself up for you. With what joy shall you celebrate with the household of faith!

Or shall you stand outside, as the older brother, refusing to enter into the fellowship on account of the mercy and joy of others? Recall the original context of this parable: Tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He told them these parables.

It is true that according to your pedigree and position you are the younger son in this parable. Perhaps you don’t have a remarkable testimony in the eyes of some who count such foolish things as Christian. But you did live an immoral and lawless life, a true enemy and hater of God, wandering far from your Father’s home in shame and death. And then, according to God’s mercy, you were baptized two weeks after you were born.

Or maybe you weren’t. Maybe it was two years. Or twenty. Or more. At any rate, you who were once far off have brought near by the blood of Christ. Welcomed home in compassion and love.

Be on guard, then, that as you live here, having been made a son and heir, learning discipline and obedience not in servile fear, but in joyous faith, that you do not become as the older brother. Do not begrudge those who have been welcomed home, but whose past is more checkered than your own. Some sins are obvious and seen by all. Others are hidden from the world, but still known to God. No one is righteous. No not one. Do not presume on the goodness of God for yourself while withholding it from others.

The older brother experiences kind of the opposite of “schadenfreude.” Instead of being happy a the misfortune of another, he is angry at the joy of another, and so misses out on true joy himself. In wanting the goat with his friends he refuses the Lamb with His Father. To refuse to eat with redeemed and forgiven sinners is to refuse fellowship with Christ Jesus Himself who ate with tax collectors and sinners. In the end, Jesus leaves the older brother still standing on the porch. Does he repent and go in?

How about you? Whether you have wandered far from home or have been here all along, whether you lived recklessly or strived for obedience, your Father’s compassion and love are for you. He withholds no good things from you. But all that He has is yours by faith in Christ Jesus. Do not look to get something from God. For you posses all things in Him. As our Lord Jesus has promised: All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that the Holy Spirit will take what is Mine and declare it to you (Jn 16:15). Children, you are always with Him and all that is His is yours. It is fitting to celebrate and be glad, for you and all your brothers and sisters were dead, but are now alive; were lost and are found.

The Lamb has been slain, yet behold He lives; His Body and His Blood are for you, for the forgiveness of your sins, reconciliation and peace and joy; patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Come in to your Father’s house, rejoice with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, for Jesus still receives sinners and eats with them.

In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Master of the feast made doubly sure that the guests received their invites. He issued two each. The first was to tell each one that he was invited. Not just a save-the-date, but a preliminary invitation. The second, was sent out on the day of the Great Banquet itself - He sent His Servant to say to those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.”

Already this shows us the nature of the Gospel and the superabundance of God’s grace. Firstly, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not so much a command, but an offer; not a demand, but a gift. Come! It is an invitation to share in the unfathomable and unbounded joy of the everlasting kingdom of God.

Second, God in His loving kindness sends His call, the invitation, not once, but again and again. In many and various ways He spoke to His people of old by the prophets. Wisdom called far and wide, in the town and the countryside, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here! Leave your simple ways and live, and walk in the way of insight.” Then Wisdom became Incarnate and God sent His Son, His good and faithful Servant to call to those who had been invited. The meal was prepared by the Lord Himself, there was nothing to do, nothing to bring, nothing to add. Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

But what do you suppose was the response? Those who has previously RSVP’d they’d be there, all began to make excuses: I have bought a field and I must go inspect it. I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. Please have me excused.

The invitation, the gift of heaven is offered, but men are so preoccupied with the busyness and pleasures of this age that they simply have no time for the joys of the age to come. Even worse, by preferring the pleasures and occupations of this life, they show that they have no real desire for the kingdom of God at all. Nothing must take priority over this invitation. But as it is written, He came unto His own, but His own received Him not, for men loved the darkness rather than the Light for their deeds were evil (Jn 1:11; 3:19).

I know it doesn’t seem as though their deeds are wicked. After all, what’s wrong with buying and selling property? Farming? Getting married? In truth, nothing. Like Mr Dives from last week, its not the wealth or the business or the weddings that are themselves the problem. House, home, land, animals, money, goods, devout spouses, children, etc. these are all First Article gifts and they are incredible and wonderful blessings bestowed by the Lord and Master of the feast. They are not of themselves evil.

But standing behind all those excuses is the reality that men love the darkness. “God, we’ve got more important things to do in our lives right now that to eat Bread with You in Your Kingdom.” Camping, fishing, vacationing. Race cars, baseball, working on my house. Friends, books, Netflix, sleeping. You name it. But it all comes down to this: “God, Your offer isn’t as appetizing to us as the fun of this world.”

So we give our hearts and minds to things temporal, things we are bound to lose one day, things that rust and decay and are moth ridden; choosing to neglect to our unspeakable detriment the things eternal. Such unashamed rejection of the Third Commandment angers God in fatherly disappointment that His gift is squandered.

But the Banquet and Supper of the Lord is a gift. First and foremost. Always. And gifts are offered, not coerced. The Lord offers them in freedom and without compulsion. And we can reject them in freedom, without compulsion. Although our notion of freedom apart from God is really its own form of slavery. Still, God will never force Himself upon anyone. And the invitation does not ring out over a person’s life indefinitely. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste My banquet.

Dr Luther likens our Lord’s Word and promises to a passing rain shower. Take it for granted, misuse it, reject it, and it’ll move on. The sad reality is that if you harden your heart to the Lord’s invitation, in judgment, He’ll harden it even more for you. Everyone is invited. But not everyone comes. The Gospel can be rejected.

But our Lord God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). And so the parable: the invitation moves from those who had no time, only excuses, to the poor and crippled and blind and lame. The call goes out to the streets and lanes of the city and further, to the highways and hedges beyond the gates. The Gospel invitation for the free and full forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ and His shed blood is sent out into all the world, compelling people to come. As the psalmist writes, Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world (Ps 19:4).

This is the reality St Paul teaches in Romans 10 and here, in his Epistle to the Ephesians. The invitation of the Gospel was rejected by the Jews and their hearts were hardened. But their trespass led to the salvation of you Gentiles. You who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of God. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Cross.

And St John writes, To all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were begotten, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word - that is Wisdom Incarnate - became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth. From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace (Jn 1:12-14, 16). This is the continued superabundance of God’s mercy and loving kindness in Christ Jesus, the Cornerstone. The call, the invitation continues to go out today, again and again. So that even after the poor and crippled, blind and lame were brought in, there was still room! So that after the dregs and outcasts, the rejects of society were welcome, there was still plenty of room for the likes of us! You could not come on your own, nor were you even invited on account of your separation and alienation from God, but, what does the text say, the Master sent His Servant.

The Servant of the Lord, Wisdom from on High, has come down to you. The Psalmist writes, He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. God stoops to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people (Ps 113:7-8).

Your Servant King left the kingdom of His Father and came down to you in the invitation of His incarnation. He has taken upon Himself your poor, frail, sin-crippled flesh, and put it to death in His death. In His Cross and Passion He made foolish the wisdom of the world. And now, in the Gospel call of that self-same Cross, He is Himself your Wisdom and Power unto salvation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

He is superabundantly generous in His grace and Gospel invitation. First though the spoken Word, read and preached, for the forgiveness of your sins and the sins of the whole world. Second through Holy Baptism, through which you have access in one Spirit to the Father, as members of the Household of God. Third, through the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Great Banquet, Feast, and Supper of the Lord, readied and prepared by God Himself. Fourth through the Power of the Keys in which peace is bespoken.

Then also in the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren. As it is written, Do not forsake meeting together as is the habit of some, but encourage one another all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:25). For when you miss, not only are you missed within the fellowship of Christ’s Body, but you also miss out on the divine gift of fellowship with Him, together with all His saints, in the Holy Things of the Lord.

For the call, the invitation to come to the Feast of the Kingdom of God is not a one time thing. No one can say, “Oh, I did that years ago.” Coming to Jesus, or rather, being brought to Him by the Spirit in the Word, is a way of life, of dying to sin and arising to righteousness in Christ Jesus, being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The call, the invitation to the Feast is also a call to repentance, a call to turn from the corruptible things of this world to the eternal gifts of Christ Jesus. It is a call to become different from what you once were. To act differently than we now act, no matter how great, wise, powerful, or holy we may be. To leave your simple ways and live. For here, at this banquet, not one is holy with his own holiness. No one is wise with his own wisdom. The Lord saves a humble people, but the haughty eyes He brings down (Ps 18:2).

Therefore, come! Do not stay away. For the Banquet is prepared, the Feast of the Kingdom of God, the very Body and Blood of the One who is both Host and Meal, Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God and our Righteousness. Fellowship in His Banquet is not merely to recline at Table with Him, but it is to be made full partakers in His divine life and love. To be blessed in the here and now as you eat the Bread that is His Body that is His Kingdom and to be blessed hereafter in the resurrection of the just to sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the blessed, receiving the Lord’s invitation that His House may be filled.

In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We don’t know his name. He is simply called, a rich man. We don’t know his name because Jesus doesn’t know his name. His name is unknown to our Lord because it is not recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. His name is not inscribed with the Blood of the Lamb nor his name joined to the Name of the Blessed Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - by water and Word in Holy Baptism in which he abided until death. He died an unbeliever. So we don’t know his name.

But everyone who knew him certainly knew his name. His friends and coworkers, his business associates and liaisons, powerful men in powerful positions. They knew his name. The invoked it when asserting their power. They dropped it when showcasing their prestige.

Everyone around the village knew his name, too. They exclaimed it with awe when speaking of the best men in town. They attached it to the list of those certainly blessed by God. They whispered it in their heads as the one they admired, aspired, coveted, and defamed.

The early Christians called him Dives. Its just the Latin translation of “rich man.” Mr Dives. Mr Money. It is not his riches, however, that are a problem. Nor his diet or attire. Jesus points out his purple clothing and fine linen, his sumptuous feasting, and wealth as symptoms of the rich man’s deeper problem. Mr Dives had a diseased heart. A heart filled with greed and complacency. A heart twisted by mammon and covetousness. A heart with no room for altruistic compassion, unconditional mercy, or self-sacrificing love.

Mr Dives, for all his wealth and prosperity, for his apparent reputation and respect, was a liar. He hated the brother who was laid had his gate and so he hated God. His contempt for the sore ridden, impoverished outcast betrayed his selfish, idolatrous heart. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. And the rich man is not saved by his riches.

But we are told the name of this poor man: Lazarus. It is a confessional type of name. A plot device used by our Lord Jesus to indicate the true source of his strength and aid. Lazarus means “God is my help.” We know his name because it is written with the atoning blood of another. Covered over in the righteousness of He who though He was rich, for our sakes became poor that in Him we might receive the inheritance of eternal life. This poor man, Lazarus, commended all his troubles and care into the hands of his merciful and gracious God. He sought every good from God alone.

This did not prohibit him, though, from pleading to strangers for mercy or seeking sustenance from the table scraps of Mr Dives. Lazarus prayed to God for daily bread, but looked for it to come through means. Our Lord always works through means. In the wilderness He did not feed the Israelites by immediately putting food into their bellies or stimulating their brains to feel full. He gave them bread. Miraculous bread, but bread nonetheless. Means.

“The Christian is entirely free and servant of none. The Christian is entirely bound and slave of all,” said Luther paradoxically about the freedom and obligation of a Christian. The rich man was indeed blessed by God with great wealth and food and provision. But these earthly riches are bestowed with a heavenly intent. The rich man was to serve God by serving his neighbor. He was to love the Lord with all his heart and show compassion on the man laid at his gate. His stuff was to serve another. In this way Mr Dives was to become daily bread unto Lazarus, even as we are all called to do for one another. No one is fiercely independent. No one is a cowboy. What do you have that you did not receive?

But every time Mr Dives refused Lazarus a morsel, every time he averted his eyes from this beggar, every time he stepped over him when he left his home for synagogue and every time he hid his face when he returned from church the rich man further calloused his heart to the Lord’s mercy and love. His did not let God’s love have its way with him, so his love for others failed.

Thus it is not for his riches that he is condemned. But for his unbelief. Neither is it for his poverty that Lazarus is welcomed to the bosom of Father Abraham, but for his trust. Mr Dives was consumed with his mammon. Lazarus was content with the kindness of the Lord.

Upon death they are judged. The rich man died and was buried. Condemned to the enteral fires of hell, his body awaiting not the resurrection to eternal life, but the punishment and anguish of eternal mortality. He who refused the love of the Lord in life received his desire in death. The goodness and loving kindness of the Lord God of Abraham was not present for him in hell. He is denied heaven by the only thing that can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus: unbelief.

By contrast Lazarus receives a blessed end. His soul is carried by the angels of the Lord to repose in the bosom of Abraham awaiting the joy of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. He who was refused compassion in life, receives the blessed comfort of a life that cannot end. God is indeed his helper. And he is not ashamed of the Lord’s promises. Lazarus knows Abraham as Father and learned well from him to trust in the promise of the Lord despite the sensible appearances to the contrary.

For Father Abraham leaned not on his own understanding. He trusted not in his extravagant riches nor considered the weakness of his own body. Rather he relied on the Word of the Lord that came to him: This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir. In his promised Seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed. And the Lord brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Once again, means. The Lord utilized an element of His creation to hold before the eyes of His children His Word and promise. He despises nothing He has made. In fact, the Lord God of Abraham took up created flesh, not despising the creatureliness of man. It is written, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you, by His poverty, might become rich (2 Cor 8:9). And elsewhere, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conveit, but in humility count others more significant that yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross (Phil 2:3-8).

In other words, our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and helper of Abraham and Lazarus, the One to whom Moses and the Prophets point and proclaim, left the riches of His Father’s house, set aside the luxurious divinity with which He is robed, and took on the humble form of a servant. A Man. He was infected and covered with the sores of our sin. He was thrown outside the Gate of Jerusalem. Rejected and ignored by rich men and rulers. Forsaken by His Father. He died in perfect love, without fear, loving His Father and you. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knew should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-11).

Dear people loved and helped by God, His Name has been joined to your name. He knows you and you are known by Him. He has not despised His means, but uses them for your eternal benefit. He has washed you in His cleansing blood and has clothed you with the fine linen of your Baptismal righteousness. And you do not come as dogs to like His sores, in which you find your forgiveness and peace, but as children, welcomed past the Gate of Eden, into Paradise once more, to sit at the Table of your Father with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Lazarus. You are given to eat not what falls from the Table, but what is bestowed from His hand: the morsel of Christ’s own Body and the sumptuous wine of His own Blood given and shed for you.

Receive these in faith, hearing and trusting the Word of Moses and the Prophets, the testimony of the Apostles, and the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives you this meal. For He has come back from the dead never to die again. By faith in Him, by trust in His Word, He gives you a share in His death defying eternal life!

Strengthened by this Sacred Meal, His Holy Supper, you grow in faith toward Him and in fervent love for our neighbor. The poor man laid at your gate, wherever that may be. You are given to love as you have been loved. Sacrificially. In trust and contentment that the Lord who has given you His material blessing, uses your stuff to bring blessing to another. Receiving the daily bread of Christ’s own Body you are to become daily bread unto one another. Not as a sacrament, as some falsely teach, but as a living sacrifice; abiding in the love of God in Christ Jesus.

By His Word and Spirit His love abides in you and you in Him. By faith you are reckoned righteous in His sight. Therefore you have confidence for the Day of Judgment and contentment in the provision He bestows or withholds now in this life. You need not fear hell nor death nor punishment, for it has been suffered for you by Christ Jesus your Lord. As He is, so also are you in this world. Hold fast to Him, to His Word and promises. He knows your name and you call upon His. And at the Last He will send His angels to bear you to your eternal home - your Father’s House - keeping your body safe until the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Isaiah 6:1-7; Romans 11:33-36; St John 3:1-15(16-17)In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

The Athanasian Creed is wonderful, isn’t it? We ought to use it more often. Perhaps on Reformation Day? It is the youngest of the three ecumenical creeds and therefore the most developed. This is the catholic faith: to believe in the mystery of the Holy Trinity - three coequal Persons who each are God and yet there is one God - and then the mystery of the Incarnation, that God the Son assumed our human flesh into His Person and suffered for our salvation - the more we know the less we understand. All we are left with is adoration. Worship.

And yet the Athanasian Creed is terrifying. It demands that not only my mind be conformed to God’s Word, but my life and deeds too. The books will be opened and I will be judged. Those who have done good will go into everlasting life. Those who have done evil into eternal fire. Its tempting to reject these words from the Creed as unLutheran, contrary to the doctrine of grace. And yet those words come straight from the lips of Jesus. Truly, truly, I say to you, and hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:25, 28-29). There’s no getting around them.

So which are you? Are you among those who have done good? The more I know myself, the more I see how much evil there is in everything I do. Every word, every glance, every interaction with others, every moment alone, reveling in my pride or sinking into my despair. Every intention of man’s heart, says the Word, is only evil all the time (Gn 6:5).

We are those who have done evil. That’s the realization of Isaiah in today’s first reading. Isaiah is standing in the earthly Divine Service, in the Temple in Jerusalem, and he sees a vision of the heavenly Divine Service, going on continually. Heaven opens to Isaiah and it is both beautiful and terrifying.

He sees the seraphim, six-winged spirits of fire. With two they veil their faces to the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty; with two they cover their bodies, down to their feet, in humility. With two they fly, encircling the exalted throne. No gentle angels, powerful energies flow forth from them and they are unlike anything seen in this world. But their immense power bows to the One whose power is infinite and glory beyond compare.

They sing a song of the end of creation, the goal, the telos, which they experience now, and we but dimly. Holy, holy, holy is the YHWH Sabaoth; the whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the Voice of Him who called, and the House was filled with smoke. We do not see the earth full of God’s glory. We see it full of man’s vain-glory, his attempts at pride that end in destruction; as you heard last week in the tower of Babel.

Holy Isaiah does not feel holy. He is confronted with his sin. Standing before God he expects judgment and certain death. Woe is me! For I am lost! I am undone; utterly obliterated. For no one can see God and live.

The same is true of us. Whether you feel death or failure or that your life is worthless or without hope, when you hear the Commandments, when you are confronted the terrible holiness of the Lord God of hosts, you cry out with the prophet: “Woe is me! I am undone.” I deserve temporal and eternal condemnation. I do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. I have not done good, but evil.

Sin costs. That’s what the altar showed. It was not a table. It was a fire. A place for both cooking and destruction. Some food was put there to be grilled, roasted, baked. Other food was put there to be entirely consumed. Entire animals were burnt to ashes on the altar. Along with flour and oil and salt. All mixed together with incense, there was a vibrant cloud of smoke that would rise up, beautiful with a powerful mixture of smells. It was the smell of blood and death, pungent and gagging, but mixed with the sweet and exotic.

The fire there burned continuously. The animals were constantly offered. A visible and visceral reminder of the cost of sin. That animal is me. That’s what I deserve. Its blood should be my blood. Its death my death. And as Isaiah confesses his sin, like the tax collector who went into the Temple to pray, beating his breast, crying, Lord, be propitiated toward me, the sinner; an angel is dispatched. A seraph, a spirit of fire, a messenger of the Lord, takes a burning coal from the altar and approaches Isaiah. Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Isaiah has participated in that which participated in the Sacrifice. By the death of Another, he is cleansed.

This anticipates what Jesus does for you this day. Something comes from the altar and purges your sin. It does not burn, for our Lord Jesus felt the burning atoning in His Body. It does not obliterate you, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. For in this way God loved the world: He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Believing in Jesus is no intellectual exercise, nor simple leap of the will. To believe in Jesus means to stand like Isaiah before the Lord’s altar and say, “I am judged. I deserve death and hell. I have multiplied transgression. I am a man’s of unclean lips and mind and heart. Have mercy on me, the sinner.”

Our Lord has dispatched no mere angel to rescue you. He has sent His sole-begotten Son. In obedience He came from His blessed throne to bestow salvation. He descended from above in order to raise up children of God from below. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so was the Son of Man lifted up, high and exalted upon the Throne of His Cross, by which He draws all men to Himself in the Temple of His Body and the once-for-all Atoning Sacrifice for sin. Whoever believes in Him has eternal life. For He sends you angels, His messengers, who preaching His fiery Word of the Law, by which you know your sin and confess it, and His sweet Word of the Gospel, by which you are forgiven and redeemed, set at liberty and not undone. In this Word the Spirit is heard. This is where He breathes. You hear His sound, but do not know where He comes from or where He goes. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor?

And at some point a messenger of the Lord was sent with the coal of Holy Baptism, that which participated in the death of the Sacrifice, is now given to you, that you may participate in its death. It is written, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rm 6:3-4). This is how you are born again, begotten from above by water and Spirit. In Holy Baptism you participate in the death and resurrection of the One who atones for your sin.

This is the testimony of which all the prophets and St John the Baptizer spoke. This is the witness of Sam and Sarah again this day and all who make the good confession. This is the heavenly things of which Jesus now tells you, which you receive only by faith through the Holy Spirit.

And this is your worship, beloved. This is the glory of the Holy Trinity confessed in the Athanasian Creed. It is not an intellectual or academic exercise, it is worship. And the highest and chief form of worship is to receive in faith what the Lord gives.

So then, come. Kneel at the Altar of the Lord, where seraphim and cherubim encircle the glorious throne. Join your song to that of the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Then receive that coal, the very Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the once-for-all Sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, it has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21; St John 14:23-31In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, with all Your graces now outpoured on each believer’s mind and heart; Your fervent love to them impart (LSB 497:1). You cannot, by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. Therefore God the Holy Spirit comes to you, by way of the Father and the Son, who with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified. He who spoke by the prophets to our fathers, now, in these last days of great distress, speaks to you by the only Son of the Father, Jesus Christ the Word-made-Flesh. He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you by His gifts.

All of this is to say, the Holy Spirit comes to you by and in and through the Word; for these two - the Word and Spirit - are inseparable. You cannot have a wordless spirit or a spiritless word. They cannot be divorced.

Though we celebrate today with one accord the so-called birth of the holy, Christian Church. The indivisible relationship, the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, did not begin at Pentecost. Rather, it began at our Lord Jesus’ incarnation when the angel answered St Mary’s query concerning her conception though she was a virgin. Gabriel said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Child to be born will be called the Holy One - the Son of God (Lk 1:35).

This relationship between the Word and Spirit continued when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Word at His Baptism in the Jordan, whence the Father declared, This is My beloved Son. Then the self-same Spirit drove the Word into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil according to the Father’s will (Mt 3:16-4:1).

The Spirit remained with the Word-made-Flesh throughout His earthly ministry until He was handed over at the crucifixion and death of the Word (Jn 19:30-31). For in this way the Son goes to the Father, who is greater than He, by way of His Cross and Passion. This is how the Son’s love for the Father is made manifest to the world: He does as the Father commands. He is obedient unto death, even death upon a Cross. This is also the way in which the Father’s love for you is made manifest to the world: in the obedient suffering and death of the Son.

But God the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father, raised the Word from the dead (Rm 8:11) and after His resurrection, the Word exspirated the Holy Spirit upon His chosen Apostles, sending them, as the Father sent Him, to forgive and retain sins in His Name (Jn 20:21-23).

In every case, Christ Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, and the Holy Spirit are together, according to the will of the Father. It is as Jesus says to Nicodemus, The Spirit breathes were He wishes you hear His sound [in the Word]. So it is with those begotten of the Spirit (Jn 3:8; my translation). This is also why, when you read the epistolary greetings of St Paul or the other Apostles, you need not be concerned that he neglects the Holy Spirit when saying, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Rm 1:7). For where the gracious benediction of the eternal Father is present, together with the victorious peace of the sole-begotten Son, there the Holy Spirit is proceeding, carrying, as it were, this self-same grace and peace of the Blessed Holy Trinity to you in and through the Word; a peace not as the world gives.

So too here, at Pentecost, Christ the Word inaugurates His Office of the Holy Gospel by the outpouring of His Spirit, the promise of His Father, upon His Apostles and gives them utterance to speak in other, intelligible languages. And the content of their speech? St Peter goes back to the Old Testament, the promise of the coming Messiah, through the prophet Joel - wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood - the Rock is proclaiming Christ the Word, His Incarnation, His Cross and Passion, His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension which is the great and magnificent day of the Lord.

But we cannot stop there. If ever there was a time for the continuation of a reading, it is today. The lectionary cuts St Peter’s sermon in half! You lose some good parts! St Peter, by the Holy Spirit, proclaims with confidence that Jesus of Nazareth was delivered up to be crucified according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of the Father. But the Father and the Spirit raised Him from the dead! And He ascended, now seated at the Lord’s right hand, His enemies having been made His footstool.

Let all the house of Israel - and the inner-city of Indianapolis - therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

For you are the descendants of Noah; you have sought your own way. Endeavored to make a name for yourself. You have lived as if God did not matter and as if you mattered most. The Lord’s name you have not honored as you should; your worship and prayers have faltered. You have not let His love have its way with you and so your love for others has failed. There are those whom you have hurt and those whom you have failed to help. Your thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin.

Repent. Everyone of you. For the Spirit-Sword of the Word penetrates between joint and marrow, bone and sinew to cut you to the quick. Repent, but do not despair. For the Lord God who came down at Babel and cursed His creation with the diversity of languages on account of idolatry and sin, dispersing the people over the face of the earth, has come down again in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Word-made-Flesh. And by His Word and Spirit He desires to gather all men to Himself under the banner of His holy Name in the City of His new Jerusalem, the Church, under the Tower of the Cross, which stretches from heaven and touches earth.

For He who descended from heaven, Christ the Word, also ascended into heaven, and He leads a host of captives in His train. The ruler of this world has no claim on Him. Neither does he have any claim on you. Satan has been cast down. His accusations silenced in the blood of the Lamb. And by virtue of your Holy Baptism into Christ the Word, by His Spirit, you are given to dwell with the Father in love. Beloved, you have heard and received the Word, the Word of the love of the Father, by which and in which you live. Your home is in Him and He has made His home with you. He does not undo the curse of the languages, but now turns the plurality of tongues into a blessing for His New Israel of the Church.

But there’s more: the sermon of St Peter does not end here, and neither does ours. For those who received his Word were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise was for them and their children. So too is it for you and your children. As it is today for Sebastian, who by the grace of the Father through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, shall make the good confession and be received into the communion fellowship of the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church.

And this is exactly as the 3000 did that Day of Pentecost! Following which they devoted themselves to the doctrine of the apostles and the Eucharist and the prayers in the life together with Jesus Christ the Word-made-Flesh who came from the Father and has bestowed His Spirit.

This, dear people loved by God, is why we grieve over false doctrine. It is idolatrous and leads one away from the true Christ, enslaving you to a false master. Against such things you prayed in the collect, saying, “grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation.” You are praying that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ the Word, keep you free from error, because by right teaching and preaching, through the pure Word of Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches you to know God aright while from exile home you are wending. Again, this is what Jesus means when He says, The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Dear Christians, He has heard your prayer and given ear to your pleas for mercy. He sets before you this day the bountiful harvest of this Pentecost Festival: grain, into which is made Bread that by virtue of His Word is His Body. The new, sweet wine of the Gospel, His very Blood, poured out for you and for your children and for all those who are far off for the forgiveness of all your sins. Come. Call upon the Name of the Lord and take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. You shall not be condemned; but you shall be saved.

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. ​

It is truly good, right, and salutary for a bride and bridegroom to welcome and celebrate their wedding day with a unique sense of triumph. When all the difficulties, obstacles, doubts, misgivings have been, not made light of, but honestly faced, discussed, and overcome then both parties have achieved the most important triumph of their lives. Don’t take those dinners at Noodles&Co for granted.

With the “I will” you will say to each other, you will, by your free choice, give new direction to your lives. Living amidst a world indifferent at best and hostile at worst to godly, Christian marriage, you have cheerfully and confidently defied all the ill advised warnings to the contrary, and with your marriage, conquer a new land in which to live. Your home shall be a kingdom of your own; a refuge and sanctuary for one another, with one another. A home wrapped in prayer, the joy of a common Christian confession, and the stability of a foundation built upon Christ. Every wedding must be an occasion of joy that a man and a woman, knit together as one flesh, by God Himself, can do such great things.

But we ought not rush too quickly assigning divine providence to your marriage. We don’t believe in soul mates. You are entering into marriage willingly, of your own choice and will. The course that you are taking is one you have chosen for yourselves, and so you alone bear the responsibility for what no one can take from you.

More exactly, you, Chase, have all the responsibility for the success of your venture, with all the happiness that such responsibility involves, and you, Emma, will help your husband and make it easy for him to bear the responsibility, and find your happiness in that. Your desire for earthly bliss, for enduring love found in one another, to receive comfort in body and soul from the other, that desire good and it is justified before God and man.

But marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, established by Him in perfection in the Garden of Eden, blessed by His presence and miracle at the wedding at Cana, and the earthly icon of His own marriage to His beloved Bride, the Church. So today, though we rejoice with you that you have reached this wonderful goal, we are ever more thankful that God’s will and God’s way have brought you here. And however confidently you accept responsibility for your action today, you may and will put it today with equal confidence into God’s hands.

Chase and Emma, you two have good reason to look back with special thankfulness on your lives up to now. Though your roads have by no means been easy, they have certainly been paved by the gracious hand of the Lord who has brought you to Himself. Emma, from infancy and childhood, your parents giving you the gift of Holy Baptism, in catechesis and confession, through steadfastness in the true faith, you have rejoiced to be a child of our Father in heaven your entire life. Chase, you have no less reason to rejoice, perhaps more, as we give thanks that the Holy Spirit called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, washed and sanctified you in the waters of Holy Baptism; and according to His good pleasure, will continue your instruction in the Christian faith and be received into fellowship at this Altar.

So as everyone wishes you well, having the support of your families and your congregation at St Peter’s, you can rejoice evermore that not only are you husband and wife, but also brother and sister in Christ, yoked together according to God’s good and gracious will. Today He adds His “I will” to yours as He confirms your will as His will. He allows you, He approves of your triumph and rejoicing, and He makes you instruments of His will and purpose both for yourselves and for others.

Chase, Emma, in your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in a chain of generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at the post of responsibility toward the world and humanity.

Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more that something personal - it is a status, an office, a vocation. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes a king, so it is marriage, and nor merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you first gave the ring to one another and will soon receive it a second time from the hand of your pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage comes from above, from God. He has established this blessed estate into which you are now stepping. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.

God makes your marriage indissoluble. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder (Mt 19:6). God joins you together in marriage. It is His act, not yours. Do not confuse your love for one another with God. He makes your marriage indissoluble and protects it from every danger that may threaten it from within and without. He is the guarantor.

This is evidenced by Christ’s presence and first miracle at the wedding at Cana. He respects marriage as a godly estate, blesses it with His Word and sign, and crowns it with the highest honor when He, through St Paul, speaks of marriage as an earthly picture of the heavenly relationship between Himself, the Bridegroom, and His holy and precious Bride, His Church. For He left His Father in heaven and His Mother Mary, and held fast to His Bride in the wedding of His Crucifixion. The water and wine of Cana prophesy of the water and blood of Calvary. That is His hour and the fullest expression of His powerful and self-sacrificial love for His Bride.

Chase, this is the kind and quality of love, which you are now given to show Emma. To love her as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Likewise, Emma, you are called to submit to your husband as the Church submits to her Savior. The is the rule and vocation which God has established for your life together in marriage. You are founding a home. That needs a rule of life, a guide. And this is so important that God Himself establishes it; otherwise everything would be out of joint. To rebel against this rule is to rebel against God. We shall reap the harvest of our selfish cultural sowing.

So you may order your home as you like, chores and dinner, trash and finances, except in one thing: the wife is to submit to her husband and the husband is to love his wife. In this way God gives to husband and wife the honor that is due each other. The wife’s honor is to serve her husband, to be a “helpmeet for him” as the creation story has it. And the husband’s honor is to love his wife with all his heart. He will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and will love her as his own flesh. Self-sacrificial love is the guide and rule of the house, but the content and form of that love will look different within your own home.

God has given you to one another, to have and to hold, to receive in mutual companionship, help, and support. Chase and Emma, this is an honorable endeavor you undertake today; a holy estate. Your marriage and home become a kingdom of its own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life’s storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary. It is not founded upon the shifting sands of outward or public life, but it has its peace in God. For it is God who gives it special meaning and value, its own nature and privilege, its own destiny and dignity. Marriage is an ordinance, a profound mystery says St Paul, of God in the world, the place in which - whatever may happen in the world - peace, quietness, joy, love, purity, discipline, respect, obedience, tradition, and with it all, happiness may dwell. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Ps 127:1).

God has likewise laid upon marriage a blessing and a burden. The blessing is the promise of children. God allows husband and wife to share in His continual work of creation; but it is always God Himself who blessed marriage with children. They are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Acknowledge them as such. They are the blessing, not the burden.

Rather the burden is the dark shadow that lies over the destiny of woman and of man, the Word of His wrath and displeasure against sin. You each carry this in yourselves, as all people do. The woman must bear children in pain, and in providing for his family the man must reap many thorns and thistles and labor by the sweat of his face. This burden ought to cause you both to call upon God in every trouble, to pray, praise and give thanks; to return regularly to the Lord’s House, built by the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, for His beloved Bride, the Church.

Chase, Emma this is the foundation of your marriage: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Live together in the forgiveness of sins that flows from His pierced side; poured over you in the water and Word of Holy Baptism and poured out for you in the Bread and Wine, His Body and Blood, of Holy Communion. Do not insist on your rights. Don’t blame each other. Don’t judge or condemn each other. Don’t fault each other, but accept each other as you are. Be imitators of God as His beloved children; walk in love, as Christ loved you and gave Himself up for you. Above all forgive each other, each and every day, from the bottom of your hearts, as God in Christ has forgiven you. This is God’s Word for your marriage. Thank Him for it. Thank Him for leading you thus far; ask Him to establish your marriage, to confirm it, sanctify it, and preserve it.

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This Sunday, the Seventh Sunday of Easter, is sort of an in-between day. The Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, His going to the right hand of the Father, is a few days back, the Feast of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit is yet to be realized. Our Lord Jesus has ascended. The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, has not yet descended. Today is Exaudi; taken from the Introit, Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Leave me not abandoned, orphaned, alone. Hide not Your face from me.

And so the Gospel lesson takes you back, as these past three Sundays and again next, to the Upper Room; to our Lord’s farewell discourse. He is preparing them for what to expect, what is to come. He would be betrayed and arrested, handed over to wicked men who would beat and abuse Him and finally end His life. But they could also expect His resurrection from the dead on the third day and His ascension to the right hand of the Father.

The Church, in her wisdom, has so ordered these texts as to reiterate the promises Jesus made. The promise of His presence, the promise that your prayers are heard, the promise of the Comforter. Before His ascension, Jesus instructed the Eleven to remain in the Holy City awaiting the promise of His Father. The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. He will testify to the crucified and risen Christ, the God-Man and one Mediator between God and man, whose bloody once-for-all sacrifice atones for the sins of the whole world.

But is it precisely in the world in which they will have tribulation. They will put you out of the synagogue. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. Perhaps a modern paraphrase might render it: “They will put you out of the Church, taking away your tax status and religious freedom. Indeed, whoever kills your livelihood and silences your speaking in the public square and suppresses your right of conscience will think he is offering service for the greater good.”

It was the Jews who put the Apostles and the early Christians out of the synagogues. Maligning them, silencing them, persecuting them. Peter and James were beaten by the Sanhedrin and told to cease preaching in the name of Jesus. Instead they Rejoiced insofar as they shared in Christ’s sufferings.

The Jews did these things to their own. But it was the Roman state who killed the early Christians, thinking they were offering service to their pagan gods. Rome sacralized her state and deified her Caesars. The pax Romana was only maintained at the pax deus and the appeasement of the gods. This peace was based on sacrifice. Not a gruesome, animal offering, but the simple pinch of incense offered by all good citizens to the genus of Caesar as the revered savior and liberator of Rome. It was a nod of the head and a bend of the knee that the Emperor was to be obeyed and tolerance was the highest virtue. So long as one publicly stepped in line, acknowledging the values of the State, one could believe whatever he wanted in his own head.

The Christian refusal was an act of sedition. They were labeled as “atheists” because they refused to worship the Roman gods. They were known as subverters of the State because they refused to sacrifice. They were called traitors because they would not acknowledge the genus of Caesar. To confess Jesus is Lord was an act of political treason. Traitors must be dealt with. They paid with their lives.

You will bear witness, Jesus says. The Greek word for witness is where we get our word martyr. Marturia. They testified with their blood. The persecution of the Christian Church did not end with Constantine’s Edict of Milan in AD 313. It is a real and present danger unknown by most Westerners, especially Americans. Your brothers and sisters in Christ around the world are resisting to the point of shedding their blood.

You are not put out of your churches, not yet. You are not being killed for your beliefs. You may. Presently you feel it in your conscience and sense it in the hostility that surrounds you. In your apprehension to speak the truth for fear of less physical, but still actual reprisal: job loss, public ridicule, private rejection. Devotees of Allah may not take your life, but statists and secularists may take your livelihood. It will be sacrificed on the Altar of Tolerance in an effort to appease the national deities and the genus of the emperor. St Peter was right nearly two thousand years ago: The end of all things is at hand.

But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away. The Helper, the Spirit of Truth, will testify of Me. The Holy Spirit helps you not by freeing you from such persecution and suffering, but by preaching Christ to you in the midst of such circumstances. I know it seems like a moot point that when you are being crucified upside down, or dragged before the Sanhedrin or Senate hearings, or stripped of your livelihood or tax exempt status, or merely when your relatives mock you for your beliefs that the Holy Spirit helps by preaching a good, Christ centered, Cross focused sermon into your ears and heart, but this is what you really need.

This is your greatest need. Not food or clothing, 501c3s or freedom of religion, not even your home or job or life. Your greatest, most desperate need, not only in the midst of suffering and persecution, but at all times, is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the full and free forgiveness of all your sins, and comfort of the Holy Spirit and a good conscience. This is not to say the other things don’t matter. They do. Jesus knows you need them and your heavenly Father grants them according to His Word and will.

But even when He doesn’t. Even if your heart bypass doesn’t result in a full recovery, or your cancer isn’t completely removed, or you don’t get the promotion, you still have what you truly need: the comfort of the Holy Spirit in the preached Word of Christ and His holy Sacraments. You have the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and everlasting salvation in the shed blood of Jesus the Christ, your faithful Martyr and Paraclete before the Father. You have the scandal of His Cross which keeps you from falling away. You have the witness of His apostles and prophets, the Holy Scriptures which make you wise unto salvation.

In the face of such external persecution or internal suffering, you are able, then, by the conviction of the Spirit and the courage of faith, to confess with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who, when threatened with death by the fiery furnace if they did not worship the golden image of the king, answered, If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up (Dan 3:17-18).

“He will save us from the fiery trial or He won’t. Either way, He is the true and living God and we are called, in the obedience of faith, to render service and worship to Him alone.” Such confidence is does not come from within, from the will or determined heart or mind, but results a fruit of the promise given by the Lord through His prophet Ezekiel: I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statues and be careful to obey My rules.

This promise if fulfilled in your first martyrdom: your baptism into Christ’s own death and life. There the Lord took you from the pagan lands and gathered you into His own land, into His Christendom. He sprinkled clean water on you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and cleansed you from all your idols and uncleanness. He has given you a new heart and put His Spirit within you. You are a people living in the joy of the Resurrection, the comfort and assurance of the Ascension, and the confidence of the Eschaton, through you are surrounded on all sides by slander and betrayal, persecution and death.

This is what St Peter is getting at when he exhorts you: The end of all things is at hand: therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. This is true sacrifice and service. This is the liturgy and spiritual worship of the Christian in the face of a hostile and rejecting world. As it is written, I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rm 12:1-2).

For the Lord is your Light and your Salvation. Whom shall you fear? The Lord is the stronghold of your life. Of whom shall you be afraid? Jesus says, Do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell (Mt 10:28). Fear Him, yes. But also love and trust in Him above all things. For He has sent the promised Holy Spirit upon you, who preaches into your ears and heart by His external Word. He grants you a good conscience in the vicarious death, life-giving resurrection, and glorious ascension of Jesus Christ.

As you live in the in-between time since Pentecost until His Second Advent, hold fast His Word and the promise of His Holy Spirit. He is your Redeemer, your Armor and heart’s dear Hope. And behold, Food for your journey, Rations for your fight, the Strength of the Lord and the Medicine of Immortality, the Body and Blood of Jesus, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins. This is nourishment in both body and soul. This is God’s faithful service to you and the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Come, dear Christians, eat and drink and do not fear. You are His people and He your God. Remember that He still says to you, “I love you. I forgive you. I shall keep you from falling away. You are blessed for My Name’s sake. Rejoice and be glad, dear child, you share in My sufferings. You shall also share in My eternal glory.”

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

He who is crucified for the sins of the whole world, is risen victorious from the dead. He who is risen from the dead, never to die again, death no longer having dominion over Him, is ascended to the right hand of the Father who puts all things under His feet as He rules over heaven and earth as true God and true Man who will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Today we celebrate the coronation of the King of kings; the rightful enthronement of the only begotten Son of the Father, who came from the Father full of grace and truth, has finished His course in the obedience of faith, laying down His life and taking it up again, now receiving once more, as the Incarnate Son, the power and glory and wisdom and might and honor and blessing that were His from before the foundation of the earth.

But why? Why celebrate the Ascension? Why be the only Lutheran church in the whole of Indianapolis to have a service this Thursday night? Elisha knew the day of his master’s departure and refused to acknowledge its reality. The disciples were confused concerning the full scope of Jesus’ resurrection and imminent ascension. We are a bit more like the Eleven. Perhaps we don’t fully grasp the impressive joy of the ascension of our Lord.

There are ten things that the Ascension of Jesus teaches us; ten wonderful, comforting truths. First, it reiterates that your Lord and Savior is not dead, but quite alive. The victory is won and now the King is crowned. He is seated at the right hand of His Father and your Father, His God and your God, as the hosts of heaven sing out, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! (Rev 5:12).

Second, as you shall hear on Sunday, the Ascension of our Lord assures you of the coming of the promises Holy Spirit, the Comforter. I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you (Jn 16:7); and, as Jesus spoke to the Eleven in Acts, You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Apart from the Ascension of our Lord, there is no Pentecost.

Thirdly, the ascension assures us that Jesus went to prepare a place for us. He has gone ahead of you, in life and in death, in resurrection from the dead and in the ascension. He is your Forerunner and Head. You shall follow Him. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.

The fourth wonderful truth is as you confess each day in the Apostles’ Creed, “He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” The right hand of the Father isn’s so much a place as it is a power, an authority. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He rules and fills all things with His divine power and majesty. He is Lord over all. This is exceptionally comforting when faced with trials and sufferings of various kinds. The Epistle to the Hebrews teaches, Since then we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with out weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:14-16).

What this means, dear ones, is that seated at the right hand of the Almighty Father, everlasting God, is your Brother in the flesh, One Mediator and Great High Priest! Jesus Christ took up your fallen flesh in His Incarnation, but He never set it aside. He is now and always shall be the God-Man, who knows your weaknesses and has compassion on His brothers and sisters in need. He works all things together for good for the sake of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

This is evident especially in the fifth truth of the ascension: Christ Jesus sends men to preach the Gospel and administer His Sacraments. That is how He reigns. The Word and Sacraments are the right hand of the Father, as it were. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in [My] name to all nations. You are witnesses of these things. He sends men to preach to you. When pastors preach, teach, and forgive in His stead and by His command, it is Jesus preaching, teaching, and forgiving you. He sends men to wash you in His death-defying life, in the fellowship of His Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus baptizes you. He sends men to feed you on His crucified, risen, ascended and glorified Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus communes you. He sends men to loose you of your sins and set you free from guilt and shame. Jesus absolves you.

Sixthly, the ascension teaches you that Jesus is interceding and pleading for you even now. His prayer for you, Father forgive them, did not cease at the Cross. He is your Advocate and Paraclete before the Father, even as He sends His Holy Spirit to be your Advocate and Paraclete before the world. You will hear more of this on Sunday.

Seventh, the ascension paradoxically teaches that though Jesus has withdrawn His visible presence, He has not removed His actual presence. He is here with us. He is not absent. A cloud took Him out of their sight, and He was, indeed, carried up into heaven, but not in such a way as to be far from us. The Ascension of our Lord can be thought of not so much as Him going away from earth into heaven, but bringing heaven down to earth. Does He not promise, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age? (Mt 28:20). He is precisely with you in His Word and Sacraments as He fills all in all.

Building on this, eighth, you have the assurance, by the ascension, that Jesus will come again as He went away. This means visibly and bodily. The Son of Man shall come again with the angels and the powers of heaven. St Paul writes to the Thessalonians, For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command and the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first - and this is the ninth comforting truth - Then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:14-17).

Finally, the tenth truth the ascension teaches is that you have already received the gift of your ascension into heaven. It is a reality beyond what your eyes can see and your senses can experience, but is known by the ears of faith and believed in the heart. You heard it in the collect this evening, “Almighty God, as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and continually dwell there with Him.”

As St Paul writes to the Colossians, If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, were Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Col 3:1-2). The Apostle is not despising earthly things. Rather he is exhorting Christians to live and walk by the Spirit and think and desire those things that are in step with the Spirit, namely, that which is the will of the Lord according to the Ten Commandments and within your vocations.

The Ascension of our Lord who fills all in all, fills you with His Spirit to mortify the old Adam and arise to live before Him in righteousness and purity. The ascension aides in your sanctification even as it assures you of your justification. For it is written, God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He goes on, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 3:4-6, 10).

Christ Jesus has taken up and exalted your human nature. He was the whole world in One man upon the Cross, so is He the whole world in One Man before the Throne of His Father. Come, receive in penitent faith the crucified, risen, and ascended Body and Blood of your Brother and Savior, Jesus Christ, who by His ascension brings heaven down to earth in the Holy Mysteries, and by the same brings you up to Him in faith to dwell in peace forever.

He has raised our human nature On the clouds to God's right hand;There we sit in heav'nly places, There with Him in glory stand.Jesus reigns, adored by angels; Man with God is on the throne;By our mighty Lord's ascension We by faith behold our own. (LSB 494:5).

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.